That fight occurring before Sunday’s game between the Steelers and Bengals traces directly to the last game between the two teams, and its aftermath.

During the Week Eight contest in Pittsburgh, Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict applied a hit to Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell that resulted in a season-ending knee injury. After the game, Steelers linebacker Vince Williams posted a tweet that Burfict and other Bengals players regarded as a death threat: “I catch Vontaze on south beach im painting that boi on sight.”

As Bengals left tackle Andrew Whitworth explained it by phone to PFT after the game, Burfict confronted Williams before the game because of the threat — and because the NFL took no action against Williams for threatening to kill Burfict.

Whitworth expressed frustration about the league’s failure to take action, raising concerns about the potential consequences of death threats made by NFL players against other NFL players — especially if fans see those threats and decide either to make threats of their own, or to act on them.

He’s right, and Williams’ behavior seems to constitute a violation of the plain terms of Personal Conduct Policy, which prohibits “[a]ctual or threatened physical violence against another person.”

It’s possible the league didn’t do anything about the threats because the league didn’t want to turn a fairly small story into a big story. Regardless, the NFL’s inaction directly sparked the extracurricular activities that occurred before Sunday’s game. Which may now require the NFL to do something.

If the NFL does something about what happened Sunday, the NFL also needs to do something about the threats that Williams previously made.

Steelers are the most classless team in the league. Coaches included. Did they see porter crawling on the ground like an idiot celebrating? Rooney’s should be embarrassed. They all acted like complete idiots. Yet the fans will defend it. Well, because they’re classless too.

Thank god we now have twitter to know who the really stupid individuals are. And the NFL’s inaction only shows how inept and clueless they are. They probably had no idea what Williams was talking about.

@ joetoronto
Yet weren’t you one of the Raider faithful that complained about Pacman not being thrown out of the week 1 game by the “clueless” officials after him & Cooper went @ it?
My how we forget Joe.
Petty, sightless, classless troll you are. Give Raiders football fans a bad name. SMH

Was at the game today. Burfict was an absolute maniac out there. He’s a great player, but he has trouble controlling his emotions on the field. He left the game twice to be checked for concussions, and both times were self inflicted when he was trying to blow a guy up at the end of the play.

Typical NFL inaction when it comes to punishing the Steelers. They are a bunch of cheap shots and their cheap shots never get called. Someone touches the Steelers or looks at them the wrong way and out come the flag.

There’s no doubt in my mind the Steelers Browns game was fixed in Pittsburgh. 2 bogus pass interference calls vs the Browns, which as everyone knows do not cover anyone, and a BS call on not giving Johnny a TD on his run.

It amazes me how all of these hypocritical Steelers fans talking about cheap shots actually approve of one of their player threatening the life of another player. This shows how classless of a fan base and organization they have created in the Steel City. They applaud when their players such as James Harrison and Mike Mitchell to name a few always try and injure other players intentionally but when one of their soft players such as Leveon Bell or Big Ben are injured by a legal tackle they cry and say it is a dirty hit. Your team and coach and ownership are classless and they are favorites of the league and that is why they are not being reprimanded for these idiotic plays that could seriously hurt someone in the future. You should be proud to live in such a crappy city and to root for such a piece of crap team such as the Steelers.

Funny, Every other comment is about Bungles this and that from some Bandwagon Stoolers fan. It’s real easy to root for a winning team that has won 6 superbowls, isn’t it? I guarantee 85% of the ones that post here don’t even live or have ever even been to Pittsburgh.

So when does the head hunter Mike Mitchell actually get disciplined for his actions? All of you Steeler fans are the pot calling the kettle black. It starts with your classless head coach and filters on down.

Ah Bungles fans. It’s so sweet watching you whine and cry about this loss. And for some of you, the playoff loss when Carson blew out his knee. Seriously? You sure carry it around, don’t you? But when your team has won absolutely nothing, ever, I guess it’s all you are left with.

Sounds like alot of whiney cincy crybabies posting tonight. Face the fact, Big Ben shredded that secondary to pieces. For us steeler fans, we heard it all week, you trash talking bungle fans who said the steelers were going to lose got beat today and beat good I must add.

It amazes me how all of these hypocritical Steelers fans talking about cheap shots actually approve of one of their player threatening the life of another player. This shows how classless of a fan base and organization they have created in the Steel City. They applaud when their players such as James Harrison and Mike Mitchell to name a few always try and injure other players intentionally but when one of their soft players such as Leveon Bell or Big Ben are injured by a legal tackle they cry and say it is a dirty hit. Your team and coach and ownership are classless and they are favorites of the league and that is why they are not being reprimanded for these idiotic plays that could seriously hurt someone in the future. You should be proud to live in such a crappy city and to root for such a piece of crap team such as the Steelers.

______________________

Enjoy 1 and done again in the playoffs. Dalton or no Dalton…Your team is pathetic!

First of all there’s no excuse for one player threatening another on social media. However having said that, I don’t think even if the league had done something to Williams, that burfict wouldn’t have crossed over to the steelers side of the field during warm ups and started a confrontation. Burfict wanted to set the tone for the game. He wanted to show that the bengals were the team to beat and that the bengals rule the north. I had to laugh how fast burfict back peddled during the skirmish, once James Harrison walked up. Basically burfict psyched himself out of the game, and lost focus. He was so intent on sending a message that he was flying on top of piles, diving at Roethlisbergers knees. Burficts hit on bell wasn’t illegal, the steelers took exception to the celebration. Let’s not forget burfict also has a history of cheap shots, twisting players ankles in a pile up. Maybe the steelers were just looking for a chip on their shoulders leading up to this game. The bottom line is football is a very violent game played by men who,can sometimes be violent. When you get in another mans face you better be prepared for the consequences. Today burfict wasn’t prepared.

Bengals fans are still in denial after that loss if they
can’t bring themselves to admit that Burfict played
dirty all through that game. Diving into the back
of the QBs legs is plain dirty, no way around it.